


Maybe I'll Learn How to Dance Instead

by artvinsky



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-15
Updated: 2012-04-15
Packaged: 2017-11-03 16:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/383647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artvinsky/pseuds/artvinsky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He finds himself laughing, laughing like a mad man, at the fact that the Avatar commented him, his moves, his bending. He stops abruptly and wipes a tear from his eye when he sees her looking at him curiously.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maybe I'll Learn How to Dance Instead

He’s wanted to leave for a long time now, but he hasn’t had the opportunity to do so. Aside from getting the usual verbal abuse from a very annoyed Mako after every match, there hasn’t really been a chance to up and just leave. He’s endured it for this long; he’s got no reason to chicken out. _For the money_ , he thinks to himself.  
  
After the match just then, he decides that now’s the time.  
  
“Whoa, the last one was a _really_ close call, guys-” Bolin begins to say as he takes a seat on the locker bench, unbuckling his pauldrons and arm guards. Hasook puts his face in his hands, his stomach still aching where a plate of rock smashed against where he couldn’t defend from the last match. Mako leans against one of the lockers and glares at them, at him, like a vulture over its prey with his eyes narrowed. He braces himself for the words that he’s heard over and over again that they’ve already lost their meaning.  
  
“Yeah, well it didn’t need to be that close if Hasook got his game together,” Mako seethes and Hasook could only bite his tongue. He remains silent as Mako continues, “I mean, were you asleep during that whole thing? Didn’t you get enough sleep last night?”  
  
“Bro-”  
  
“Can’t you just be grateful that we got through it?” he bites and his hands find themselves  
clenching and unclenching. He looks into Mako’s eyes and sighs. “I’m trying my best here, Mako.”  
  
“Maybe your best isn’t good enough then-”  
  
“Mako!” Bolin bolts up and shakes his head at his brother. “Enough-”  
  
“Bolin, sit down. He needs to hear this.” Hasook could only laugh, and he does, even when Mako gives him a glare that could burn his hair off. Bolin’s eyes dart between them uncertainly and he sits back down, waiting.  
  
“Are you giving me my ‘this-is-why-I-suck’ speech?” he asks with a fake smile on his lips. He unbuckles his arm guards and throws them to the ground and watches in satisfaction as Mako bares his teeth, like an animal agitated. “I’m pretty sure I’ve heard all of that before, man.”  
  
He continues to remove his pauldrons, his shin guard, his chest plate, and makes sure to have them clatter to the ground as he drops them. Bolin sighs and excuses himself, saying something about that Korra girl waiting outside for them, and leaves them almost at each other’s necks, at least Mako’s almost wants to go at his. He sets his helmet on the bench with a satisfying thump and heads for the door, his eyes gazing around the locker room one last time. He won’t miss any of this.  
  
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Mako hisses as his hand lands on the doorknob. “We’ve got a match coming up tomorrow-”  
  
“Isn’t it obvious?!” he snaps as he turns round and throws his hands up and he grins, that feeling of genuine happiness filling his stomach; no more insults, no more taunts, no more Mako. “I’M LEAVING! Good-bye, Mako. Hope you have a good one.”  
  
He leaves before he could hear Mako explode and he smiles as he almost-struts down the corridor.  
  


****

He shows up for their next game, not as a competitor but a watcher, and as he sits in between a bunch of rowdy teenagers who kept spilling their popcorn on him, he waits. He isn’t sure what to expect, what to make of what might happen to Mako and Bolin. He doesn’t smile or wolfwhistle when the announcer says that they’ve got less than 5 minutes to come up with a waterbender, but he doesn’t miss it; being their waterbender.

Surprise passes over his face as he watches a third player follow the brothers while constantly pushing the helmet from his, or was it a girl, face. As they crouched in position, he could almost hear in his head, Mako’s pre-game advice to him when he was still on the team.

_Don’t screw up, light on your toes, alright?_

He snorts when he sees their waterbender swiftly send one of their opponents flying over the fencing, jumping in excitement while Mako and Bolin lower their heads in embarrassment. He shakes his head while the boys beside him yell insults at the waterbender, even attempting to toss popcorn into the ring.   _She's worse than me_ , he thinks to himself  as the sound of her laughter fills his ears. It sounds familiar, he thinks, as if he's heard it before, somewhere inside this arena. _It's that girl. That Korra girl that Bolin brought into the sidelines on the last match._

Hasook bites his lip as he watches her stalk to the second zone, and he sighs as he watches her getting buffeted by balls of flame, and bits of rocks while Mako and Bolin hold off the opposing waterbender. He just about get up from his seat to leave the match, and to leave permanently, when the Fire Ferrets' waterbender does something no waterbender can do. He hears her yell as she brings her fists up to cover herself, taking bits of the rock set in the ring up with her, sending up an explosion of dust and dirt where it collided with the Platypus Bears' rocks and flames.

"Did that waterbender just earthbend?" he hears the announcer say as he falls right back into his seat, brushing off the popcorn that these stupid kids spilt on him. He's had half the mind to send them flying with a waterwhip but his eyes are trained on Avatar Korra's back as she stomps away into zone three under a penalty. Mako and Bolin look quite defeated at this point, and he, for the first time, pities them.

He wriggles in his seat as he sees her sent over the edge and into the pool of water below, knowing that feeling all too well. Sure, it was okay for that to happen to him, but to her - the Avatar; doubtless she knows anything of failure and here's her first taste of it, with everybody watching and listening.

He’s not even watching the brothers anymore and his tired eyes follow the top of her head as she swims and climbs the safety platform down below the ring, and he sees a tall figure waiting for her in a brightly-coloured Airbending getup. He watches them argue, judging by Korra’s hands in the air and the way she stalks off towards the elevator, leaving the tall airbender behind.

He’s on the edge of his seat as he watches her return to the ring, only to be pushed back into zone three with the brothers stuck in a corner, unable to help her. _She’s not going to make it._

But she does as she avoids the the rocks and flames flying at her as she spirals around the edge, easily as if she was dancing. Hasook smiles and he feels his feet tapping, as if wanting to join her, to dance with her. He finds himself laughing as they strike back at the Platypus Bears, sending all three members of the team into the pool at a blink of an eye, ending the match.

He gets out from his seat to the sound of Bolin’s howling and dusts the popcorns from his jacket to Korra’s shouts of victory with a smile on his face.

****

  
Hasook walks back the locker room, hoping to visit even when he knows that the first thing that would happen to him is a pummelling by Mako, but instead, he is met by Avatar Korra fixing her ponytail as she leans against the doorframe of the locker room. She sees him and cocks her head to the side as he approaches.

“Hey, you’re the old waterbender they had,” she says and he nods, forcing his hands into his jacket pockets. “What happened? How come you didn’t turn up?”

“It wasn’t fun anymore.” _It never was. I suck at it._ He smiles at her. “Plus Mister Hat-trick kind of hates me anyway.”

She laughs. “Yeah, he is kind of a jerk.”

Silence passes over them and he takes a seat on a nearby bench, waiting. Bolin and Mako definitely aren’t in the locker room anymore, that fact he’s sure of. He isn’t sure of what he waits for but the silence breaks as Korra sits next to him.

“So what are you going to do now?” she asks him. For once, he’s without response. He isn’t sure but his mouth goes ahead and says what he says next.

“I-I don’t know. Maybe I’ll learn how to dance instead,” he sputters out and he clenches his eyes, waiting for the barrage of laughter that would come his way.

“You do have the moves though, so it makes sense,” he hears her say and he opens his eyes to find her standing up, her body in the normal defensive stance. He swallowed as he stood up, loosening his collar button and _\- is she going to fight me? I don’t stand a chance._ A laugh bubbles up from her mouth as she leaps up into the air, making a graceful pirouette kick that looks so damn familiar that he couldn’t place it.

“Excuse me?” he asks as he relaxes, his hands finally finding themselves in his jacket pockets.

“That kick you did the other night!” She repeats the attack, her dark hair whipping around her bright eyes and when she lands, she excitedly points at him, it finally kicks into his mind. “That was a really awesome move, I mean, it was minimalistic, it looked effortless but you managed to send that one guy flying into the pool. I think you’d make a good dancer with those moves.”  
  
He finds himself laughing, laughing like a mad man, at the fact that the Avatar commented him, his moves his bending. He stops abruptly and wipes a tear from his eye when he sees her looking at him curiously.

“I mean- thanks. Er, thank you, Avatar Korra.”

“Korra’s just fine, you know.” She smiles at him and he feels heat creeping up his neck and cheeks, hoping that she wouldn’t notice. “Hasook, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Good luck.” _Good-bye_. He’s never going to see her again after this, he thinks to himself. He nods turns round to the end of the dark corridor he came from. She walks the other way and he  listens to the padding of her boots on the pavement. Before she completely goes he whirls around and shouts.

“Korra! Wait.”  He jogs and they meet a little over halfway. He gulps and exhales, holding her curious stare with his. “I wanted to say well done. Coming from me that doesn’t mean much, but you’ve done really well. Mako and Bolin are lucky to have you on the team.”

“Thanks, Hasook.” Her smile is contagious, and he feels grateful to have met her, on such nice terms too, far from who he thought was the girl on the radio from the other day.

“Good luck.”

“Good luck to you too. Also, Mako’s an asshole, be careful of that.”

“Sure, that’s already established.” He laughs and waves goodbye as he walks back through the dark corridor, unaware of the light footsteps that chased after him in the dark.


End file.
